Friday, June 02, 2006

White Wine Portabellas Over Garlic Angel-hair (w/ a Side of Grilled Asparagus)

What's THIS crap, Lindyloo? It's just mushrooms on a bed of plain pasta? Why even waste our time posting it? My two-year old could whip this up, both hands tied behind her back and blindfolded!

Oh no, my vegan friends. This ain't just mushrooms and noodles. That's what I thought as well when I first saw it. It's actually a mindblowing fireworks-explosion of flavor packed into an extremely non-assuming and deceptive package.

I cannot take credit for this dish, as it was my feller's weekend to cook, but I wanted to post it here nonetheless as it was a surprisingly good recipe, despite seeming simple and basic enough that it couldn't *possibly* be chock-full of exciting flavors. But I was wrong wrong wrong.

And with the encroaching summer months, this is the perfect recipe to set aside for those swelteringly hot days because a) it'll only take you 1/2 an hour to cook, b) it just requires use of a stovetop and no oven, and c) it's very light and delicately flavorful, not super-rich and heavy at all.

Perhaps I should tone down my enthusiasm just a TINY bit so you don't come back to me saying, "What the hell, you crazy bitch--it *wasn't* all that after all!" But seriously, for the simplicity of this recipe, it packs a lot of flavor in--you've gotta love dem portabellas.

Saute garlic in the olive oil. Once the garlic has browned, add two packages of sliced portabella caps. Add 1-2 cups of vegan dry white wine and simmer the mushrooms until just limp but not mushy--salt and pepper to taste.

To serve:

Place noodles on a plate and put 5 or 6 mushroom slices on top of the noodles. Voila!

Grilled asparagus:

1 lb. asparagus, cleaned and snapped1-2 t. olive oil

Place both on a grill over medium heat. Shake your favorite spices over the asparagus as it grills. Turn once, after about 2-3 minutes. Cook until the asparagus turns bright green. Do not cook too long or it will be limp.

----------*For some reason their website is not working. Here is a site for organic wines though: Ecowine.com...